1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film-forming apparatus, a film-forming method and a particle-supplying apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for producing a piezoelectric actuator used, for example, for an ink-jet head of an ink-jet printer, there is a method called aerosol deposition method (AD method). In the AD method, an aerosol, in which fine particles of a piezoelectric material such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) or the like are dispersed in a gas, is ejected (jetted) toward a surface of a substrate to make the fine particles collide against the substrate and to deposit the collided fine particles onto the substrate, thereby forming a film such as piezoelectric film or the like.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-293159 discloses an apparatus for forming the film by using such AD method. This apparatus includes an aerosol formation chamber for generating aerosol, a film-forming chamber for ejecting the generated aerosol to a substrate, and a nozzle provided inside the film-forming chamber. The aerosol, generated in the aerosol formation chamber, is introduced to the nozzle via a transport tube, and the aerosol is ejected through the nozzle toward the substrate.
In the AD method as described above, it is important to maintain the concentration of the aerosol (aerosol concentration) ejected from the nozzle to be constant, in view of forming a uniform film having satisfactory quality. However, it is difficult to stabilize the aerosol concentration due to many factors such as solidification of the aerosol in the aerosol formation chamber, clogging of particulate material in the transport tube and/or nozzle, and the like.